fall inside a hole

Plarail and other toy trains

Plarail is a Japanese toy train system first released in 1959. The Plarail range includes a wide variety of track and trains, accessories, cars, licensed character toys, and exported sets. Links to other pages focusing on other kinds of toy trains will also be found here when I have the time to prepare materials for and write those pages.


Plarail History
a brief history of Plarail and its trends
My Plarail collection
some of the sets, engines, and accessories that I own
Plarail repairs and resources
repairing Plarail gearboxes, scans of stickers, manuals, and other materials, and some 3D printable replacement parts
Thomas Plarail
sets, engines, and other things related to the Thomas the Tank Engine Plarail series
Plarail exports
various versions of Plarail items exported to other countries
TomyTrain
train system with reversing engines and magnetic couplings that used Plarail-style track sold in Europe and the U.S.
Capsule Plarail smaller-scale windup vending machine gashapon system
Other misc. Plarail Mini Mini Plarail, Amusement Plarail, and other odd "Plarail" things
Plarail pre-history and "cousins"
old wooden and plastic train sets that led to and diverged from Plarail
Other Tomy toys some of Tomy's other wonderful electromechanical toys
Other train sets
other toy train systems
Other toys other toys I find interesting in some way

ruminations on what makes a good toy train track system
My layouts Plarail and other train layouts I have built over the years
Further reading
other Plarail and train-related resources (links page)